PAX East and Game Developers Conference are the first major events in the industry in 2020, but more and more companies are saying goodbye to them. Several studios have officially canceled their participation in the event in Boston.
The corona virus continues to take toll in the gaming industry. After a number of heavyweights such as Sony or EA canceled their participation in the Game Developers Conference in mid-March in San Francisco, the weekend PAX East is also suffering. After the first rejections, there was now almost a flood of further such reports.
Due to the recent outbreaks of the corona virus around the world, a number of developer studios and publishers are not necessarily planning to travel and are therefore staying away from the PAX East 2020 in Boston, contrary to previous plans. The trade fair in the eastern part of the United States is therefore less noticeably less important due to external circumstances.
I just found out my team is canceling our PAX East trip so I will NOT be at PAX East as previously planned.
I should still be at GDC though!
– Ｓｔｅｐｈａｎｉｅ Ｂａｙｅｒ (@NSSteph) February 25, 2020
The most prominent company among the failures is likely to be CD Projekt RED for many players. Stephanie Bayer, Head of Communication at the North American branch, has now admitted that the corresponding trip has been canceled in order to maintain the team's health as best as possible. Small consolation for players in this context: For PAX East, no new presentation of the much-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 was planned anyway.
As part of PAX East, Capcom would have wanted to hold the accompanying Monster Hunter Festa: Boston 2020 event, but this has now also been canceled. The announcements planned for the event about Monster Hunter World: Iceborne should still exist, but will probably only be communicated via the network.
An update on MH Festa: Boston 2020:
Unfortunately, our guests from the MH dev team will no longer be able to attend the event. We will no longer have an autograph session but are still planning to share #Iceborne news.
Our sincere apologies for inconvenience! pic.twitter.com/DVpQugYieS
– Capcom USA (@CapcomUSA_) February 20, 2020
Last but not least, the makers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds said goodbye to PAX East, because PUBG Corp. does not travel to Boston. They have reorganized their own travel plans accordingly and want to return to the new travel plan "as soon as the corona virus is under control".
Sony and Square Enix had previously canceled their participation in PAX East 2020. The event will still start tomorrow and will continue until March 1st, 2020.
This year we have the big names in the role-playing grandstand. Cyberpunk, Final Fantasy VII, Tales of. No matter which scenario you like, which will. hot!
